Belfast & Northern Ireland

The postings immediately below describe a six-week trip to Europe – and I ended my travels (perhaps not surprisingly!) in Northern Ireland. You’ll notice a similar pattern, with stops there in 2016 and 2018, to see my cousin Bryan and his wife Mary. Bryan was my college roommate back in the 1960s, and this week-long stopover became our usual family affair, with Mary’s siblings and relatives joining us for a lively dinner, her cousin Anne showing us around Belfast, and my brother Mark flying in from the States.

Anne lives near the university area in Belfast, and so our visit included a stop at the Ulster Museum, which has a whole section dedicated to ‘The Troubles,’ as well as local history, art and other collections. The museum is located in the Botanic Gardens, and so we also visited the Tropical Ravine House, originally built in 1889, which features a sunken ravine running the length of the building, with balconies for viewing on each side.

Given my recent extended time in Italy, I was also shown the statue of Galileo housed in nearby Queen’s University (Mary’s alma mater). Sculpted by Pio Fedi, a well-known nineteenth-century artist, the work was brought back from Italy by one of the University’s medical professors. It too spent time in the Ulster Museum, but was moved to its present site in 2001. Supposedly, rubbing Galileo’s foot before an exam brings luck…. a rather strange belief, given his rationalist leanings!